» Supercars: McLaughlin wins amid shortcut controversy

Scott McLaughlin has taken victory in a drama-filled opening race of the Supercars Championship round at Winton Raceway, which saw he and DJR Team Penske teammate Fabian Coulthard make contact during the opening lap.

The two Ford Mustangs came together at Turn 5, leading to both cars running off into the infield. The contact – triggered by Coulthard clipping the back of McLaughlin – saw the former drop to 23rd position. McLaughlin, however, took a shortcut across the infield to the exit of Turn 8 and slotted back into the third place he’d held before the nudge from Coulthard.

The race stewards handed Coulthard a 15-second time penalty for the contact, but took no further action on McLaughlin’s rejoin.

Fabian Coulthard & Scott McLaughlin collide - 2019 Supercars Winton SuperSprint

Friendly fire: Coulthard and McLaughlin make contact on the opening lap.

There was further drama on Lap 2 when David Reynolds bumped early race leader James Courtney out of the lead at Turn 4. This earned the Erebus Holden driver a five-second time penalty to be served during his pit stop.

McLaughlin held third place behind Reynolds and Courtney before moving into the lead at the end of the compulsory pit stop cycle. He was the first of the frontrunners to pit on Lap 12 and stayed ahead of Tickford Racing’s Chaz Mostert, who pitted seven laps later.

With Courtney lacking pace and Reynolds serving his penalty when he pitted on Lap 20, McLaughlin would thereby inherit the race lead.

En route to his ninth race win of the season – already equalling his tally from the entire 2018 season – McLaughlin was shadowed by Mostert, who had earlier claimed pole position in a wet/dry qualifying session. Mostert could not find a way past his fellow Mustang runner and finished 1.301 seconds behind at the end of the 40-lap race to earn his fifth podium of the season.

Jamie Whincup benefited from an ultra-early pit stop to move up to third after everyone else had pitted, but on much older tyres he was unable to keep the chasing Reynolds behind him for long. Before the end of the race, Courtney also got ahead into fourth, before the seven-time champion was demoted to sixth by his Red Bull Holden Racing teammate Shane van Gisbergen.

Coulthard recovered to finish sixteenth after his own penalty, but with McLaughlin having won the gap between the two at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings has now extended to 232 points.

2019 Australian Supercars Championship Truck Assist Winton SuperSprint – Race 13 Final Classification (40 laps)
Pos	Driver	Team	Result
1.	Scott McLaughlin	Shell V-Power Racing Team	54:59.990
2.	Chaz Mostert	Supercheap Auto Racing	+ 1.301
3.	David Reynolds	Penrite Racing	+ 8.949
4.	James Courtney	Mobil 1 MEGA Racing	+ 9.530
5.	Shane van Gisbergen	Red Bull Holden Racing	+ 17.212
6.	Jamie Whincup	Red Bull Holden Racing	+ 18.424
7.	Nick Percat	Honda Motorcycles Dealer Team	+ 21.663
8.	Andre Heimgartner	Plus Fitness Racing	+ 31.711
9.	Mark Winterbottom	Irwin Racing	+ 34.381
10.	Scott Pye	Mobil 1 MEGA Racing	+ 34.672
11.	Cameron Waters	Monster Energy Racing	+ 35.552
12.	Will Davison	Milwaukee Racing	+ 35.921
13.	Tim Slade	Freightliner Racing	+ 36.128
14.	Rick Kelly	Castrol Racing	+ 37.177
15.	Fabian Coulthard	Shell V-Power Racing Team	+ 37.576
16.	Macauley Jones	Team CoolDrive	+ 42.057
17.	James Golding	Boost Mobile Racing	+ 52.679
18.	Anton de Pasquale	Penrite Racing	+ 53.128
19.	Todd Hazelwood	Bigmate Racing	+ 53.560
20.	Jack Le Brocq	Truck Assist TEKNO Racing	+ 55.677
21.	Garry Jacobson	RABBLE.club Racing	+ 56.520
22.	Lee Holdsworth	The Bottle-O Racing	+ 41.636
23.	Simona de Silvestro	Team Harvey Norman	+ 1:12.634
24.	Jack Smith	SCT Logistics Racing	1 lap behind
25.	Richie Stanaway	Boost Mobile Racing	1 lap behind

Post-Race Penalties:

Lee Holdsworth – who provisionally finished P8 – was issued two separate 15-second post-race time penalties for causing avoidable collisions with Garry Jacobson and Anton de Pasquale.

Images via DJR Team Penske and Supercars